Structural studies of biological tissues can provide important information regarding dynamic organismal processes. For instance, such studies can be employed to understand how and where therapeutic agents co-localize in a tissue or an organ for a subject. In particular, methods for visualizing biological structures, on a micrometer- or even nanometer-scale, should preserve the three-dimensional context of the entire tissue or organ.
Yet, probing such structures can be difficult due to the fragility of some biological structures. Further, internal organismal structures are generally inaccessible, and access may require damage to external structures that support internal organs and tissues. Thus, any technique to elucidate such structures should not only maintain the spatial location of internal and external organismal structures but also stabilize biological structures for further experimental analysis (e.g., by scanning electron microscopy).
Many biological structures exhibit great spatial (e.g., two-dimensional and three-dimensional) diversity. Yet capturing these diverse, structural details can be challenging. Presently, a generalized method to capture such structures is lacking. Such a generalized method would be beneficial in order to develop, synthesize, and design a new class of complex and biologically-templated materials and constructs.